A new sitcom shot in Calgary features a predominantly Black cast and crew.
Smell Da Coffee is the brainchild of Ireke Amoji who moved to Calgary from Nigeria six years ago.
Amoji said his goals are to make people laugh and showcase African Canadian culture.
“Basically that we are very funny, that the African Canadian humour is as good as it gets,” Amoji said with a laugh.
Amoji said there was a sense of pride that came with seeing his community represented on screen in a Canadian sitcom. He got the project off the ground with a grant from Calgary Arts Development.
“People want something different. Something entirely different and this is it.”
Stella Orji was the assistant director for the project, which was shot in the southeast community of Erin Woods last summer.
“On the set the actors and the crew were mostly Black and that was cool,” Orji said.
Orji, who moved to Calgary from Nigeria four years ago and works at Simba Creative, which handled the production process for the project, said working on Smell da Coffee made her feel at home.
She said regardless of what country they come from, people in Alberta’s Black community will be able to relate to the jokes.
“You feel this sense of belonging when you watch the show and they say something where you say ‘Yes I get that!'”, Orji laughed.
“Even though we are different, the similarities are huge,” said Amoji about the diverse countries represented in the pilot.
“There are cultural expressions that I used where people from Ethiopia said they got it. They said ‘we do that too in my place,'” Amoji said.
The show also deals with thorny issues that many immigrant families deal with when adapting to a new culture.
“I see so many families, especially African Canadian families, being torn apart by subjects that are taboo to them and they just don’t know how to deal with it,” Amoji said.
Orji said the the show is meant to share cultural perspectives and build bridges between communities.
“It’s more like we are sharing stuff and integrating. Like in my place this is how we say things and this is what we eat and you are also teaching me how we do this. It’s making the world a better place,” Orji said.
Amoji said he wants to put an Alberta focus on the production with references to Calgary’s history.
“For Calgary, I tapped into Calgary Stampede culture and also the John Ware culture,” Amoji said, referring to the freed slave -turned-cowboy.
Now the pilot needs to find a home. The team behind Smell da Coffee is working on pitching it to TV networks.
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